Welcome to Day 16 of the Virtual Advent Tour!

Today on the tour, we head back to Beyond Strange New Words and Jo Kay, who has some beloved Christmas carols for us to listen to to help get in the holiday spirit.

Thanks once again, Jo!

Check back here tomorrow for the next stop on the Virtual Advent Tour. And if you’re interested in taking part in the tour, badges, details, and sign-up info can be found here. We’d love to have you participate.

Three beautiful things from this past week:

1. Susan invites me to join their family for the annual tuba concert at the Kennedy Center. This year, it’s held in the concert hall, rather than the atrium, which means we are literally surrounded by tubas, sousaphones, and euphoniums on all sides. Also, it’s very exciting when they ask kids in the audience to help out with “Jingle Bells” and their daughter heads up on stage.

2. My coworker and I brave the cold to go out for a bowl of soup and to catch up on how our holiday prep is going.

3. My Secret Santa (arranged by The Broke & The Bookish) package arrived and is full of anticipatory pleasure: it contains a dozen wrapped items for me to open over the coming days. (I’ll share them all with you later on…) Thanks, Gina, for so much fun!

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world recently?